Sewing Skirts Before Evacuating

   I had to leave my mobile home before the Hurricane Irma came calling on Sunday and Monday.  So I spent part of my Saturday sewing up two more skirts with the fabric I ordered.  It was a great way to be creative and relieve a some of the stress.  I couldn't tell how bad the storm was going to be or whether I would have a home to return to so I packed the kitties and the essentials (including my Janome 7700 because I had to save at least one sewing machine) and I went to stay at my daughter's house which is not a mobile home.  We got through the storm without losing power and I came home this morning to find my house the same as I left it.  A few sticks and small branches fell out of the trees but nothing more.  I was really lucky and really happy. 

   Here are my new skirts.

   While I was away I did get to spend some some time making flowers and half flowers for the second row of the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  Row two is not even half done but I'm working on it.  I should be able to show something soon.

I'm Making Simple Skirts

A few years ago I made an elastic waist skirt from a bed sheet I bought at Goodwill.  It was a pretty blue floral sheet and I wore that skirt a lot around the house.  I found some holes in the fabric a few weeks ago and I knew it was time to say goodbye to that garment.

I cut the skirt up and kept all the good pieces to put in my stash.

Then I got on the computer to buy some fabric for a new skirt.  I decided to make a gathered skirt with doubled fabric.  I thought it would be great for the winter.

I bought 5 yards of cotton fabric for this project.  I ended up ordering the fabric from Thousands of Bolts website.  The fabric was $4.99 a yard, which was a price I loved.  I also had to buy more 1" elastic for this project so I ordered 12 yards from Amazon, because I'm going to make a few more skirts.

I washed the fabric, gave it a light iron, cut off the selvedges, and folded it in half lengthwise right sides together and sewed it up on all sides leaving an opening for turning it right side out.  I turned it right side out and sewed up the opening and I had my skirt.  I sewed up the side seam, made an elastic casing at the top, inserted my elastic, sewed up the casing, added a patch pocket, and my skirt was done.  It's super heavy and it will be perfect for curling up in the winter.

Here's a picture of the finished skirt.  It doesn't look like much, but I think I will get a lot of wear out of it.

While I was looking for more fabric to make skirts, I found some of the 16th Century Selfie in Plum.  I love this fabric, it's designed by Tula Pink in her Elizabeth collection for Free Spirit.  I found this on etsy.  I had a yard of this fabric a couple of years ago when it first came out and I used most of that to make a bag.  I cut up what was left into strips for my string quilt blocks.

The seller only had two yards of this but I had to have it and I think it will be perfect for an elastic waist skirt.  This skirt will not be doubled.

In between making skirts and fabric shopping I'm still working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.  I've gotten the first two flowers of row 2 sewn to row 1 and now I'm back to cutting fabric and making hexie papers to make the next three flowers for this row.  I'll post another picture when I get some more done.  It's a very slow project but I'm loving every stitch of it.

Ironing Board Cover Finished

   I made my ironing board cover this morning.  The project took me a couple of hours.   I cut the fabric out using the ironing board as a pattern, then I ironed and sewed up a casing for the elastic, finally feeding the elastic into the casing and securing it.  I used 2 yards of 44" wide cotton fabric and 2 1/4 yards of 1/2" elastic.  I left the old cover on underneath this cover to give myself some extra padding.

Quick Hairbands

    I needed hairbands and I finally found a pattern and picked out some fabrics to make them.  The last time I made hairbands they didn't turn out as nice as I wanted them to and I never wore them.  I think I will wear these more.

   I found my pattern here.  I didn't use the cover for the elastic or make my hairbands reversible, I used 5/8" fold over elastic to join the two ends.  I bought a grab bag of 10 different colors of fold over elastic from an etsy shop.

   I made six hairbands this afternoon.  These were super easy to make and I love the end result.

Not So Pretty Potholders and Pretty Ironing Board Cover

     I made some not so pretty potholders to match my blue and yellow kitchen curtains this weekend.  I used scraps of different fabrics for the first set because I thought it would be pretty, but they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted them to.  I made the round set after the square set because I thought they would turn out better.  Not.  All of these potholders are, however, very functional, since I used a layer of 100% cotton batting and a layer of Insulbrite in each one.  The binding is a tad messy on the scrappy potholders and the round ones just curled up after I applied the bias binding.  Crazy potholders.  I also had a chance to crochet a new dishcloth, using up some of the tons of white cotton yarn I accumulated for some project or another that I now be using for new dishcloths for my kitchen.

 

    I made a new cover for my new small ironing board this weekend.  This ironing board came with a very thin muslin cover and a super thin layer of batting under the cover.  The muslin started to stain after two uses.  I sometimes spray my fabric with water to get out the tough wrinkles and the water stained the light beige muslin and that's when I knew I had to re-cover it.  I made a quick cover for the ironing board and I beefed up the inside with one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Insulbrite.  I left the old cover on it and used the ironing board as my pattern (I love this trick, learned on the Internets).  I put my fabric on the floor and turned the ironing board upside down on it and cut around the board giving myself about 4 inches for side coverage and  my elastic casing.  I cut the batting and Insulbrite the exact size of the top of the ironing board with no overhang for a neater look.  I made a casing for my 1/2 inch elastic and threaded the elastic in it.  I put the new cover on the board over the old cover along with the new insulating layers and tightened the elastic, knotting it really well.  That cover is on there to stay, I can't get it off without cutting the elastic.  I love the blue and I love the thickness of it.  It's perfect.

  I  washed some of fabric for my new quilt project.  I'm ironing today.  These are the pinks and greens, the patterns are for the top and the solid pink is the backing fabric.  The white fabric that also goes on the top will be washed today.  I'll start cutting soon.